1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to technology for accessing network resources through portals.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the growth of the Internet, the use of networks, and other information technologies, Identity Systems have become more popular. In general, an Identity System provides for the creation, removal, editing and other managing of identity information stored in various types of data stores. The identity information pertains to users, groups, organizations and/or things. For each entry in the data store, a set of attributes are stored. For example, the attributes stored for a user may include a name, address, employee number, telephone number, email address, user ID and password. The Identity System can also manage access privileges that govern what an entity can view, create, modify or use in the Identity System. Often, this management of access privileges is based on one or more specific attributes, membership in a group and/or association with an organization.
In some instances, an organization provides its member with access to an Identity System through a portal. For example, the organization's web page may include a link selector, such as a button, icon, or address entry field that a member can use to address and access an Identity System application or resource. In other implementations, portals provide access to network resources unrelated to Identity System operations. The scope of network resources accessed using portals is very broad—encompassing any type of resource that can be addressed and accessed over any type of network, such as applications, data stores, and websites.
Identity System users typically need access to multiple network resources within the Identity System. For example, an Identity System may include separate applications for managing users, groups, and organizations. Each application is separately addressable as a network resource. Unfortunately, traditional portals only provide direct access to a single network resource. This results in the need to use multiple portals for directly interacting with each Identity System application. Otherwise, a user must direct a single portal to a primary application within the Identity System and navigate to other desired Identity System applications without the use of the portal. This can be very inefficient when the primary Identity System application is not the Identity System application desired by the user.
The same dilemma occurs when a user desires direct portal access to any set of applications, such as network resources for multiple financial institutions—a separate portal is required for each financial institution. It is desirable for a user to directly access multiple network resources through a single portal. This would benefit Identity System users, as well as users of various network resources.
Some Identity System users also employ an Access System. An Access System provides for the authentication and authorization of users attempting to access resources. For efficiency purposes, there is an advantage to integrating the Identity System and the Access System. Additionally, integrating the Identity System and the Access System allows for single-sign-on functionality across multiple resources. Thus, there is also a need for providing access through a single portal to multiple network resources associated with Access Systems and integrated Identity/Access Systems.